General-delivery post-office cabinet



JJB. CONINE.

GENERAL DELIVERY POST OFFICE CABiNET.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3. 1919- 3 SHEETS-SHEET l.'

J .B. Goad/w.

ATTORNEYI Y J. B. CONINE.

GENERAL DELIVERY POST OFFICE CABINET.

APPLICATION map was. 1919. 1,351,372.

F Y I.

BDllc D||c 01 minus l1:

INVENTOR. 17. B. Coil/0 118, BY

A TTORNEYJ J. B. CONINE. GENERAL DELIVERY POST OFFlCE CABINET.

APPLI CATION FILED FEB- 3, I919.

Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

i To all whom it may comm;

i I GENERAL-DELIVERY. POST-OFFIGE CABINET.

' 'Be it known that I, AMns CoNrnE ia citizen of the United States,residing at Fort-l/vorth, in the'county of Tarrant and.

State of Texas, have invented-certain new and useful Improvements inGeneral-Delivery Post-Office Cabinets,;;o f which: the

following is aspecificatiOm a This invention relates to post-officefurni-' ture and moreparticularly to an improvement in cabinets for thedistribution and delivery of mail and especially for general de livery.purposes. I embody a number of compartmentsto re-.

ceive the mail matter,. these compartments" being usually equal innumber to the number ofletters in the alphabet so that allmai'lmatterbearing a surname beginning; with a given letter of the alphabetwill be placed in a single compartment, indistributing the mail matter,and regardless of given names. Thus the compartments which are toreceive pieces of mail matter bearing numerous sur names beginningwiththe more frequently occurring letters ,of the-alphabet, becomeover-crowded, interfering with the distribution of the mail andrendering it laborious to search through the pieces of mail mattercontained in these compartments to locate thepieces directed to any oneindividual, an pa i u ly i h ctruef the re on that it is from thesecompartmentsithat the ce nt ust be? t e most quee yr moved'and perusedin delivering the mail,

I In the use of such cabinetstherefore much time must be spent'and evenwastedin performingthe task of distrlbut ng and de- I livering the mail,and alsoconsiderable confusion frequently results ,from the crowdedcondition of the compartments. The pr1- mary object of .the presentinvention is therefore to provide apost-oflice cabinet for the purposestated in whichthecompartments will beso arranged and designated as togreatly'facilit ate the work of distributing and delivering the mail sothatlconsiderable 1 time willbe saved and annoyance-avoidedand'theiliabilityof making mistakes will be redu edtqa mi im a I; havefound that where-mail distrib-- uted and delivered by arranging thepieces of ,mail matter not only according tosurname initials but alsoaccording to given name initials, all ofthe desired results abovementioned may be obtained; and therefore Il'l' o de -a pect, the P e ein n ion V Specificationbf retters rga t. mputation m -Fa e 3,:,ieiafiseiaal'releases; l j

distribution aif d delivery; of the mail ac 'Q u. i6, Wif hfthis"System." i D struction; which" will materially assi attanment-ofithe-desirediresults' Ordinarily such cabinets;

CQ L QPEPI PQS 'ffi aiarrangementandedesigna' I calving cempartm ntslsoxas. t provide for i v fAnqther obiect of'the inventionf is to A ba ylli fiw lnet Certain detailsiofzlcon the v accompanying drawings cfigure 1 is ac-front elevation of the the or major portion of.agcab-i-nfetconstmicted in accordance with the. presentinvent-ion; theI view illustrating the arrangement Off ithe ma lreceiving.Lcompartments and the man ner. .111 which they aredesignatedjgj Fig. 2; is; a detail view in front elevatio ofea portionofthe cabinet illustrating-more I 1 in. detail: the: system H ofdesignating the-sevenal; compartments; o

- Fig.3 is'a pe'rspective-vieiw i ."Fig; 4 is a, perspective view ofthe; forward 1 portion of the bottomiofLone ofthe coinapartments;-

The uppe vportionof the cabinet sembodyi ing the present-'inventionristobe devoted' v v. V tojthe;receptionigof.first and' second class mailmatter .or, s other words, letter'l mail I and card mail, and the lowerportion of the cabinet is toibe devoted to. the receptionu'of packages,newspapers, and the like; III-1'9 saidupperuportion ofathe'icabin'etembodies sides top iz. and ai b-oaom 3', and isyofj s rectangnlar formand of 'a heightgand width commensurate with the-compartments into whichthe interior lSlt'Q be'divided. In iClividing the, compartments,vertical partition 1 pieces 4and horizontal partition .piecesoare'bodyof. the 'cabinetj'soaas' tolform the said arranged and built into'the interior ofthe compartments, which latter are indicated by thenumeral 6. and: each of which is mam 'gular and of sufficientlylargecapacity to mum volume-of mailzwhichiwilli at any time a receive what iscalculated to be the .maxiaccumulate bearingany particularcombina-v tionof surname and given; nameinitials.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in Fig, 1 of thedrawings, there will be approximately seven-hundred and.

two of the compartments 6., The division pieces 5, of course, constitutethe, bottoms of the' compartments 6 and, it ispreferable that thesepieces, asclearly shown in Fig. 43

of. the drawings, have their forward edges bulged outwardly along acurve as indicated the (i-n, U-V, W-ii, and Y-Z initials.

by the numeral and that the said edge of each piece be formed at anintermediate point with alfinger notch 8. As a resultof thisconstruction the removal of mailmatter 1 from any compartment is greatlyfacilitated,

and also the notch serves also as a visible spacing device so that theletters indicating I the surname and givennameinitials combibe broughtinto more prominent new and will notbe liable'to hoover-shadowed ornations and which letters are printed or otherwise-depicted upon thesaid edge, will hiddenzbythe projecting ends of envelops,

cards, or. other pieces of mail matter." Of

course, theintersecting division pieces 4 and 5, formingthe-compartments 6, locate these compartments in'horizontal rows andvertical columns, and-upon the forward edge of :each side 1 of the bodyof the cabinet there letter is printedor otherwise depicted the lettersof the alphabet beginning with the letter A at-the top and "extending inalphabetical order to the letter Z at the bottom- These columns of indexletters of the alphabet are indicated by the numeral 9 and each letter-t0 -:the columns is arranged opposite, a row of .com )artments betweenthem. Thus the of thecabinet and also opposite the compartment. at theextreme upper right hand cornerwof the cabinet. In other words, the

- horizontal rows of compartments will be designated in descendingorder,by an index column comprising the letters of the alphabet arranged inalphabeticalorden Theletv ters 9 index the surname initials. I :T isvertical columns of compartments are similarlydesignated by indexletters of the 40 alphabet arranged from left to right in alphabeticalorder and as indicatedby the numeral 10, these letters appearing in rowsalong theiorward edge oi -the top2 and bottom Ziof the compartment andbeing 'irr dlcatlve or given name lIlltlttlSV However,

due to the frequency of occurrence of given names having some initials,'particularly' C, 1-1, and J andfthe infrequent occurrenceoi givennames-havingother initials such as Q, R, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z, certaincolumns are repeated and letters in other columns doubled up. As shownherewith, there are provided'two C columns, two columns, and three 1Jcolumns for the first mentioned initials and but'a sin le'column' eachfor I Not only are the index letters '9 and 10 respectively indicativeof surname and given name initials, but they-willalso be indicativerespectively or" the-first and "last names of a company,firm,corporation, or the like.

Thus in the instance of, for examplefthe Union Transfer Company, theletter U of the series 9 would be indicative of the first name of thiscompany (Union) and the list will appear opposite the compartment at theextreme upper left hand corner tor T of the series 10 would beindicative of the last'nanie of this company (Transfer) As before statedthere are two vertical C columns two ifl'rclu'mns and three J col-.umns, and the left hand one of each of the C and columnsissub-indexedinaddition to themajor letter C, by the vowels A, E aiid I,the right hand G and H columns being sub-indexed, in "addition to therespective major or key letters, by the vowels O, U and Y. Similarly theleft hand J column is subindexed additionally by the vowels A and'E,

the middle J column by the vowels I and O,

and the right hand J columnby the-vowels U and Y. Thusallcommon givennames such as JamesandJohn are thrown into different columns andcongestion "is avoided. i might add thatwith large cabinets andespecially in use in city post oitices,,other columns than C, H and Jcould be repeated or duplicated with advantage. I

Also, the preferred construction of-my improved cabinet, eachcompartment G'is designated upon the forward edge of its bot tom 5 withletters corresponding to the index letters designating the row andcolumn at'the intersection of which the particular compartment islocated, the letter corresponding to the letter designating the row ofcompartments appearing at one side of the notch Sand the lettercorresponding to the letter designating the vertical column of theintersection of the D column of comp artments and the B rowofcompartments as shown in the said Fig. '2. -Thus letters addressed,for example, to David Brown, Daniel Boone, 'andall other persons, firms,corporations, companies or the like having these first and "last nameinitials will be placed in thecompartment 6", and so with all of theother first and last name initial combinations as regards the respectivecompartments. Of course, as concerns the'c'ompartments 1n the C, H and Jcolumns, these pieces of mail matter bearing" given names beginning withthe corresponding majoror key letter followed by--any of the vowelswhich follow this key. letter where itoc'curs at the head of the columnand thus the given names are indexed and sub-indexed, and tengestion ofthese compartments is greatlyrelieved. It will also be understood'fromgthe foregoingthat any compartment desired compartments will bedesigned to-receive 1 i0 .net there are providedtwoor more rows ofcompartments indicated by the numeral 1 1 maybe as convenientlyffound itis po-.

sitioned'ne'ar the lower "and righthand side oi the cabinet'as here itis :POSltlOIlGCl 111 the upperand left hand side of the cabinet" due tothe fact that the series of letters 9 is appears upon the forward edgeof both sides i 1 of thecabinet and the series. of letters 10.

appears upon the forwardfedge of both the top 2 and bottom 37st thecabinet.- c

1 In the lower portion or base ofthe cabiand which are designedparticularly to receive small packages, newspapers, and other I 15' morebulky pieces or" mail matter." Also if I desired a number of slides 12may be positinned beneath: the bottom 3 of theupper portion of thecabinet and the top of the base portion in which the compartments 11 arelocated, these slidesb'eing adapted to be drawn out so as to provide:supportsupon which the mail matter may be placed' and convenientlyreached while distributing and delivering the same.

It will be understood, of course, that in- 'the vertical column 9 theremay be combl'nations of initial letters as in? the 1 horizontal '.t' o'prow 10. Itwill' also be'understood that v the proportions of the cabinetmay be varled 7 from those shown in Fig.1 and in 'fact it will no doubtbe preferable to form each compartment of less depth than Width so thatthe completed cabinet will be of less height than Width 'so that personsof me -f dium statur'e may experience nodiflicult'y in distributing mailmatter to the Various com-r partments. I that ifdesired the series ofinitial letters 9 and 10 may be transposed so that the vertical rowswill be designated byv'letters'repres'enting theinitials ot-surnames andthe horizonwhat isclai-med as new is:

In amail cabinet, indexing means di'vid It will ler be understood l i,tal rows icy-lettersrepresentinggiven names.

Havmg thus described the invent on, l

, v lng the cabinet into cooperating compartments al'ining in verticaland horizontal 5 face oithe cabinet-and 'havinga finger designations foreach horizontal row, the malnindlcla of the Vertical and horizontal ofeach com artment ro' ressin in alhap o b c betical iorderl..-With]respeet; to' succeeding a compartments oi the same row to form 1a f cabinet or having alining ,vertical and 'jhorizontal rowsofcompartments'indexed alphabetical order.

In testimony whereof IafiiX rny signature. 7

JA Es B. ooNiNE. as f if '55" rows being' jdupli'cated on thepromontories 7 of each compartment, the respeetlve indicia;

